The rules are for everyone else BUT me

[PacificBlue]

I'm seeing this attitude more and more everyday. Why is that? I was just reading Jim's seatbelt thread and it got me to thinking about a lot of other things that people feel infringe upon their personal rights.

In order to have a society that functions, at some level, there have to be some rules or we would have complete chaos. Yes? No?

 

[Gilly Bean]

I agree, though there are rules I hate.

 

[Guest]

some rules I agree with, others are meant to be broken because they infringe on my pursuit of happiness.

 

[The Heretic]

I'm seeing this attitude more and more everyday. Why is that? I was just reading Jim's seatbelt thread and it got me to thinking about a lot of other things that people feel infringe upon their personal rights.

In order to have a society that functions, at some level, there have to be some rules or we would have complete chaos. Yes? No?

Yes we need rules - however, my philosophy, and I suspect JMJ's philosophy, is that rules (in his case laws) should not be structured such that other people mandate what is good for us. THis is the case for seat belt laws; they don't protect other people from us, they protect us from ourselves. When you adopt the attitude that the government can make such laws, you wind up with fiascos such as the so-called "War on Drugs" which do a lot more harm than good. You start shifting responsibility from the individual to the state or to others. This is a real problem that has been around for a while and is getting worse.

So my rules are:

1) Seek the truth.

2) Treat others the way I wish to be treated.

Applying these rules to seat belt laws, I would say that the government should not mandate seat belt use for adults. Why? Because while I use them, I don't want anybody telling me I have to use them, especially not the government. I also don't want traffic cops looking for people who don't use seat belts and stopping them. I would rather they stopped people who tailgate or drive "agressively".

When you drive to work this morning, notice how many people violate the 2 second rule. How many of those people get stopped and ticketed for driving too closely? Did you know that the main cause of accidents on a highway was people following too closely? Everytime someone tailgates me they endanger my life - the same is not true if they don't wear their seatbelt; they only endanger themselves, and that is their right.